I know I have been a bit scare. Thank heavens there was not structural damage to anything, it was just all those poor huge tree's that fell down. Frank was starting to clean up but he needed someone with a chainsaw to cut the big branches and remove them. I am more concerned about the Fever Tree Forest at Crooks Corner. There was a huge one blocking the road and I could see more that were blown down so hope the destruction there is not too bad. I also hope all the Pel's survived as its their breeding season at the moment and hopefully none of them were forced to abandon their nests.

richardharris wrote:I am sort of reassured by the 'walking in the area for years' comment as I have never seen anyone. Maybe commonsense does prevail.I still am amazed at the decision to allow walking in the area - there are plenty of other stretches of the river.Richard

First of all, you should bear in mind that the Makuleke Contract National Park is private land. It was restored to the Makuleke community, who were unceremoniously kicked out in the late 60s. The Makuleke could have done whatever they wanted with the land: mined it, turned it over to agriculture or cattle ranching, or trophy hunting. Instead, they decided to set it aside as a privately owned national park. Without going into all the tedious details, this means that SANParks is responsible for such things as road maintenance and environmental management. The rest is up to the Makuleke.

Two private lodges as well as a guide training company operate in the area. Walking is permitted anywhere and everywhere, although SANParks' anti-poaching unit needs to be kept informed. These walks are of course guided.

Walks generally take place early morning and late afternoon, when there should not be any tourists at Crooks' or the picnic site, and in the case of the latter there is no particular reason to walk there, unless you are following the river. Besides, the picnic site is easily skirted, as the vegetation is pretty thick along the northern riverbank. You could walk 10-15 meters in without anybody at the picnic site ever seeing you. The same goes for the point opposite the two S63 T-junction river view loops, as well as the long hippo pool loop farther downstream (which after the floods has become a "no hippo" pool loop anyway).

zivvy&muffin wrote:Of course, at the moment Pafuri Camp is not in its normal operations. As I recall Johan has access through various contacts. In both sets of pictures I have noted no tourist 'action' on the south side, which implies to me Johan has taken care to avoid his visits overlapping.

Yes, it is still closed. The walking trails camp did operate from March - October, though. And yes, I do have access, and yes again, I have no reason to gate crash the SANParks viewing points and upset any tourists. If nothing else, I'm no fan of walking at midday in summer.

zivvy&muffin wrote:By and large the Pafuri Camp operation has been silent and invisible to the regular Wild Card wielding KNP guest, in my experience.

Indeed. However, after the floods one can now see the last five tents or so from the little viewing loop on the S-63 closest to Luvuvhu Bridge.

As an aside, KNP guests are not always silent and invisible on the Makuleke side. You would be surprised how many have been caught on no access roads, sometimes many kilometers from the H1-9. Makes you wonder what goes on on the firebreaks and management roads in Kruger proper.